Roles & responsibilities

Details of the roles and responsibilities for the Chair, the Commissioners and the Advisory Group for Time to be Heard.

Chair

Before Time to be Heard is in operation:

To work with officials in the SurvivorScotland team to establish Time to be Heard on time and within Scottish Government (SG) budget, acting within the parameters set by Scottish Ministers
To work with SG officials (including Communications Health) on any media or publicity issues concerning Time to be Heard
To work with SG officials on issues of relevance to Time to be Heard arising from the Scottish Human Rights Commission Framework
to chair the Advisory Group and ensure that members are aware of and (so far as practicable) adhere to their responsibilities (see below)

While Time to be Heard is in operation:

To chair the hearings so that they are undertaken with integrity and sensitivity
To oversee the financial, administrative and technical arrangements for Time to be Heard with particular consideration for their efficiency, effectiveness and suitability
To work with the support team who assist at the hearings
To deal with queries from the media and stakeholders
To supervise compliance with Data Protection (DP) requirements and be responsible to the DP Commissioner for such compliance
To oversee the implementation of the process review of Time to be Heard
To oversee any arrangements for facilitating reporting allegations to the police by the participants (if they wish) and also in other circumstances where reporting is considered necessary

After Time to be Heard has finished hearings with participants:

To ensure that personal data is retained confidentially and that DP requirements and commitments made to participants are implemented
To complete a report on the evidence gathered through Time to be Heard and the implications of that evidence
To complete a report on the Time to be Heard process
To work with SG officials (including Communications Health) on any media or publicity issues concerning Time to be Heard

To assist the Chair in undertaking his responsibilities (as indicated above)
To sit with the Chair at any hearings of Time to be Heard (one Commissioner at each hearing)

(Taken from Paper AA1/2 Advisory Group papers)

To provide expert advice on the pilot plans prepared by SurvivorScotland Team
To identify gaps in proposals put to them by the Team
To anticipate any challenges or unintended consequences of the proposals focussing particularly on risk assessments provided by the Team
To act as an independent verifier of the plans
To confirm that the human rights framework to be provided by SHRC is taken fully into account in plans for the pilot and in the pilot itself
To assist with key issues arising during the pilot
To consider any outstanding issues at the end of the pilot
To comment on draft reports of the pilot's work, in particular anticipating the establishment of any full Forum